Month of Sorrow
by pokemonsonicgirl123
Summary: Ever since he awoke from his coma in February 2011-six months after the Manila tour bus incident in August 2010-Hong Kong is cursed with chronic chest pains and heart problems. This August of 2013, he crosses paths with a girl named Philia, the Outer Philippine Islands, and later finds that he is attracted to her. And she may be the only one who will save him from his curse...
1. Chapter 1: Heart Attack

Hellooo everybody, it's pokemonsonicgirl123 with her first fanfic in a long while! I hope you all enjoy it! I've did some little revising before posting this! D Oh, and despite Koishi Komeiji being in this story, it's not actually a crossover. Koishi will only have a minor but vital role in this one; mainly to serve as Hong Kong's unofficial "cupid." I don't know if the admins here will catch wind of that, though. ^^; Anyways, enjoy~!

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><p>Hong Kong felt a great pain in his chest while he was sleeping. He shifted his sleep position in his bed to be more comfortable, but the pain just wouldn't go away, no matter what. He breathed heavily, gripping his black "Bad Apple!" t-shirt, just hoping it will go away. But it wouldn't. Having enough, Hong Kong got out of his bed, still clenching his shirt in his fist, and went to the washroom two doors down, planting his hand onto the hallway wall for support. But with every step, the pain would gradually intensify, with him getting dizzy.<p>

By the time Hong Kong got to the washroom, he put one hand on the sink, and the other, that was previously gripping his t-shirt, reached up to the medicine cabinet above it to get his heart medication. But awhile, his head began to tingle severely, and then his chest, which bears his scar in the center of it going down vertically. _No…! No, not again..!_ Then his vision blackened, and landed on the cold washroom floor.

All Hong Kong could see was blackness. His skin felt cold; in fact, so cold that he could not move at all. He then could feel his body temperature dropping by the moment; any lower, and he would freeze to death. _I… I can't see anything… I can't feel anything… but the darkness and the cold… Please… someone end it… please…!_

"Hong Kong?" a voice was spoken, but it sounded distant and filtered. "Hong Kong?" This time, though, it sounded a little clearer, though it's still distant.

At that moment, Hong Kong could feel his skin temperature rising just slowly, followed by his body heat. The voice kept repeating his name until he was able to decipher who it was. _Teacher…_

Hong Kong then fluttered his eyes open, just to see China, his guardian, sitting on his bed beside him, holding his hand with both their fingers entwined, with the look of worry on his face. Did China carry him back to his bed? Another noticeable thing is that his chest pain was mostly gone, though it felt like his chest is a bit likely to rip itself open anytime soon.

"...Teacher…?" he breathed as he tried to get himself up, but China firmly pressed him back down.

The Chinese nation then lovingly stroked Hong Kong's cocoa brown hair, moving his wider bangs out of his face for his French quarter gold eyes to show. "I saw you lying on the floor of the washroom, aru," he replied. "Did it happen again?"

The Cantonese city-state relaxed a little before answering, "Yes. But how did you know…?"

"I heard a thump in the washroom sometime after midnight, aru," China explained. "I was worried about what had happened, I went to the washroom and I found you lying on the floor, unconscious, next to the toilet. So I put your arm over my shoulder, put you on your bed and did CPR until you were breathing again, aru."

Hong Kong sighed with relief, "Thanks for that." and lets go of China's hand so that he could get his body under the bedsheets.

"I'll go get you some of your heart meds and water, aru," said China as he got up from Hong Kong's bed and exited out of his room.

The teen city-state turned and laid on his side, but his eyes remain open. His room is very dark with the lights turned off, save for a wide strip of light that's dim, although it glowed on the shelves where Hong Kong keeps his Touhou merchandise* (and several posters of Jackie Chan and the movies he acted in) ranging from yukkuri plushies to figurines to doujinshi mangas.

China entered the bedroom once again with two white pills and a plastic cup filled with water. Hearing his guardian's footsteps on the scarlet carpeting, Hong Kong sat up against his pillow, and took the pills from China's hand, put them in his mouth, and took the glass from the other and drank the water, swallowing them. He then exhaled and gave the glass back to him. "Thanks."

China took the glass and replied, "You're welcome, aru. Now go back to sleep."

The Chinese nation then exited Hong Kong's room and closed the door, again leading the city-state back into total darkness. His tarnished gold eyes took a scan of the dark room, adjusting to the darkness. When he was a child, he was very wary of the dark. Sometimes, his fear becomes so great he would either cuddle up against his older sister, Taiwan,** or ask China to open the door slightly so that he would feel safe with a little light. But, that was when he was a little boy; the silhouetted shapes are no longer scary, just non-moving.

Eventually, Hong Kong's eyes begin to burn and his eyelids become heavy, becoming very needy of sleep. Sensing this, he laid down on his other side, but his eyes caught a glance of his digital alarm clock, the scarlet numbers, blinking colon, and the letters glowing against the pitch black. He read the date on the left bottom side of the clock. He could feel a thick substance forming in his throat as he read the whole date silently.

_Aug 1/13, 12:19AM_

August 1st, 2013. The first day of the last month of summer. The last month of summer. The month when summer begins to end. The month when students that have graduated from high school prepare for college. The month when parents and their children shop for supplies needed for school. The month… when the dreaded incident occurred almost three years ago. The month Hong Kong wanted permanently removed from the calendar. The month, as he would dub it, of sorrow.

The sorrow in which the tour bus he was riding on in Manila, Philippines was taken hostage by a rogue policeman. The sorrow in which said policemen shot all nine of his people, including him, even after an hour of negotiations. The sorrow in which only eight of his people died, leaving him still partly alive even after the bullet struck his heart. The sorrow in which he is the personification of a city-state in China, though he is immortal like the rest of the nations, went into a deep comatose state for six months.

Hong Kong always rued the month of August it had to happen this month of all times. Even though he finally woke up from his coma in February 2011, even after he had went through rehabilitation after the bullet was surgically removed from his heart, along with all this came a curse he was doomed to live through: heart attacks. Severe chest pains. Heart palpitations. Cardiac arrests. And he has to take medicine for all of these until all those stop. However, the curse remains dormant for the next eleven months after the last day of August at midnight, but will strike on the first day at the same time. Hong Kong receives those symptoms every August since the Manila tour bus incident, becoming worse by the year. Any more, and he will enter another coma. Or die.

Finally, Hong Kong's eyelids become heavier and heavier, complying to close them, but not before thinking, "Why…? Why…? Why did all of this have to happen? Why do I need to suffer from all this?"

_Somebody… end it for me… please… I don't want to live like this… help me… help me please…!_

The next morning, a faint light struck Hong Kong's closed eyes. Naturally, being the heavy sleeper he is, pulls the crimson red covers over his head to block out the light, so he could sleep for a while longer. All he wanted was to sleep away what happened three years ago, hoping all of his heart and chest problems would ease off and stop. But, sadly, they wouldn't. The teenaged Hongkonger scrunched himself up in a fetal position, but he could feel the chest pain from last night slowly creeping back, as well as an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

_I want it to end,_ he was thinking. _I want all of this to end. The heart attacks, chest pains, everything my curse has to offer, just free me from all this! I can't take it anymore…!_

Just then his thoughts (and his sleeping) were interrupted when China knocked on Hong Kong's door and opened it, coming in fully dressed (though he was wearing panda slippers), with a bright smile on his face. "Hong Kong~" he said in a sing-songy voice. "It's time to wake up, aru~~!"

Hong Kong could only shift under his bed sheets. "Gimme like, another five minutes…"

China walked up to Cantonese city-state's bed and pulled the sheets off him, which prompted him to shield his eyes from the light. "You've only slept in for about thirty minutes, aru! It's 9:53!"

"Still too early…" Hong Kong turned to further protect his face from the light in his fetal position. It didn't really help that his head is starting to hurt from the awkward sleeping position.

China simply grabbed Hong Kong's shoulder and twisted his upper torso to him so that Hong Kong can see him face to face, much to the latter's irritation as he covered his eyes with his lower arm.

Eventually, China let go as Hong Kong rubbed his eyes to get half the sleep out of him. He looked out his window. "Fuhhh. It's cloudy, not at all sunny out."

"Ohh, that doesn't mean I can enjoy mornings, aru!" China replied with a pout.

Hong Kong then sat up and got stretched his arms, yawning in the process. Why couldn't China oversleep so that he could sleep in up until half past ten?

"Now get dressed, aru," said China, clasping his hands together. "I'm making some breakfast."

With that, the Chinese man turned on his foot and exited out of Hong Kong's room and closed his door.

The teen city-state rubbed away the remaining sleep of him. The little chest pain in him was gone, but his stomach was still hurting and his brain matter is slowly turning to jelly. He just shrugged it off because he was feeling hungry (and he can be a glutton, no less).

After he got dressed (though he was not wearing any footwear, just in his socks), he ventured downstairs to the kitchen, where China is cooking up some food. As much as Hong Kong was hungry, his stomach hurting is very gradually getting worse. Maybe the curse is adding in something new? Hong Kong hopes it isn't. It's not like he's going to throw up from eating even a little bit much like his best friend, Iceland, had during his severe depression when Hong Kong himself went all vegetable coma for six months straight. The thought actually sent shivers down his neck when he saw Iceland for the first time in ten months on Skype looking pale and unnaturally thin, his berry-colored eyes near-soulless from the depression he's been through.

Speaking of depression, Hong Kong wondered if China, or else himself, would even go through the same? Rather, the same routine China would go through to make sure that he's with him the whole time ever since he was handed back to him from England in 1997. Whenever Hong Kong would get out to the back porch to get some air, China would always shadow over him, making sure he would never leave his sight. Whenever Hong Kong would get out to get something China requested (usually ingredients for whatever dish he's planning to make), China would constantly call his smartphone and tell him if he's alright, to the point, last year, Hong Kong would turn his phone off out of irritation. Sure, granted, he would be irritated, but strangely, at the same time, he felt content with that. Because he knows that China was a very loving and caring parental figure, even though he himself has been increasingly protective of him (an overbearing mom, as Hong Kong would put it).

This August of this year, though, it would be no different. Back then, in Hong Kong's room, China sounded cheerful and eager to start the day, but Hong Kong knew what's going to happen. Or what China's feelings would be this year. He knows that outside, China is happy, asking him how he slept, what meetings either he or both of them together would go to, the works. But Hong Kong could see in his guardian's eyes was the past emotional turmoil he went through when he was in a coma. Turmoil… but at the same time, rage, fury, in the forms of tears he'd shed inside. Not too long after Hong Kong returned, China sternly forbade Hong Kong from personally seeing or consorting with the Philippines ever again. Though both Hong Kong and Macau, his other guardian, protested that it was irrational, as Hong Kong never saw Philippines personally (let alone if there's an actual personification of it), the Chinese nation made it final and ordered them both to not protest any further. This barely even helped at all in Hong Kong's situation.

Just then, China cheerily announced that breakfast is ready, prompting Hong Kong to realize he's been staring deadpan at China's back, and he mentally slapped himself just for doing that. When China's finished putting the food in the two bowls with two pairs of chopsticks, puts them on the dining table, he and Hong Kong sat down in their chairs, which are across from one another.

The Cantonese city-state took a glance at the meal, which is actually a simple one, presented before him-rice porridge-pinched a small bunch with his chopsticks and ate them. After he swallowed, he said, in monotone, "Thank you for making breakfast."

China grinned as he was eating his rice. "You're welcome aru~! You know, I've noticed just now on how monotonous your voice sounded, aru."

Hong Kong stopped eating and looked up, his stomach gradually getting upset. "Huh? Oh, I was just a little tired. That heart attack got me, like, more groggy than usual."

"I see," China replied, continuing to eat the rice. "Usually, when I make rice porridge for breakfast, you would always eat them happily, since they're one of your favorites, aru."

"L-like I said, I'm just groggy from the heart attack, is all."

China said nothing for the rest of the meal. Hong Kong made no utter nor facial change on this, because he knew what his guardian would be saying, but ironically, he did not expect this. Then again, it's something China would often say when something's wrong with Hong Kong.

Hong Kong emptied his bowl of the rice, but then a thick object started to form in his throat and his stomach feeling upset once again as he got up from the chair.

China gathered the dishes together and put them in the sink, then turned to Hong Kong and said, "Would you please help me wash these, Hong Kong, aru?"

The teen city-state felt his stomach gurgle slightly, pain increasing steadily, and his brain cells turning into gelatin. "U-um… can I, like, skip out, teacher? I don't feel totally great."

"Are you experiencing some chest pain, aru?" China asked with concern in his voice.

"...Yeah, I guess." With the falsified reply, Hong Kong exited the dining area and went upstairs to the washroom as China turned the water on.

The Cantonese teen closed the washroom door behind him, with the object in his esophagus threatening to come out of his mouth. He put his hand over his mouth and breathed hard, his head bobbing slightly. No way in hell is he going into an eating disorder like his best Icelandic friend once did.

Unfortunately, that's already proven futile. Hong Kong felt his cheeks automatically fill up with mushy matter, and he rushed to the toilet and forcefully coughed out the stomach acid and the rice porridge he had eaten. After his vomiting in the toilet water, a few tears came out from his eyes from the exertion and panted from the force of the contents in his stomach spat out from his mouth.

Hong Kong then closed the lid of the toilet and flushed it. Then he got up, turned the sink on and splashed water all over his face to get rid of the tears off of it. Next, the got a paper cup from the medicine cabinet, filled it with water, put it in his mouth, swished it and spat it out, panting softly.

He then turned the water off, but stared at the white sink, his eyelids getting somewhat heavy. "I guess…" he whispered. "I wasn't able to hold back the nausea like I thought… No. No, I'm not going bulimic like Ice did! I will not be!"

With those words, Hong Kong exited out of the washroom and went back to his bedroom, where he just walked to his bed and plopped on it, back first. His stomach was feeling a little better, but at the same time, it made him feel heavy-hearted. Heavy-hearted, as in the weight is somehow pressing down on him. Is Hong Kong still unknowingly depressed from the first few days after he returned home from the hospital in the Philippines? Or is he reliving it? Maybe he felt his emotions were vomited out along with the stomach contents. Sometimes he could feel his own emotions slipping away and returning and slipping and the cycle goes on. His body is either developing an intolerance to food, one of the ingredients was contaminated, or maybe… maybe his subconscious is the only thing that's depressed. He doesn't know what to feel anymore. Either that, or he knows that at the end of the month, he will most certainly die.

He will most likely enter brief vegetative states after a few heart attacks. After the next cardiac arrest, he will enter an irreversible coma. The thought of it felt like Hong Kong's own heart was being squeezed. He doesn't want to enter into a coma, let alone die. It didn't matter if he was a human or an immortal anymore. He doesn't want China to suffer his future third emotional turmoil, nor does he want his best friend and older siblings, including Taiwan, to go through the same.

The teenage Hongkonger turned to his side of his bed and clenched the bed sheets entering a fetal sleep position awhile. _What the hell's the point of living when I am cursed?_ he thought. _Better off to die rather than live with this stupid curse._

Eventually, Hong Kong's heavy eyelids took over, and he fell asleep on his bed, breathing softly.

_Hong Kong found himself floating in a black dimensional void, eyes closed. He couldn't touch anything, or feel anything, save for his usual scarlet duangua outfit that he's wearing. He grunted slightly, opening his eyes to see the black void before him. Then his feet touched the ground, which is actually a water-like platform, where he can easily walk on the surface, though his shoes cannot get wet. Curious, Hong Kong then walked across the watery surface into the black void, wondering of what might be ahead, even though it seemed pointless walking in this black void with a water-like surface to walk on._

_He walked at a steady pace on the surface, careful not to be disoriented. He felt his eyes swell slightly from the darkness of the void, but it did not hurt; they're actually swelling in his eyelids, he can feel it. (Even though his eyes are not actually swelling.)_

_After nearly ten minutes of walking, Hong Kong noticed a little girl, who looks 10-ish, several feet in front of him and stopped. The girl's back was towards him, her entwined hands resting on her bottom. He took a few steps forward to get a closer look; the girl is fair-skinned, has semi-curly pale mint-green hair, wears a black sunhat with a yellow ribbon around the brim, a yellow long-sleeved tunic with black ruffles coming from the sleeves, a dark green skirt fading to light blue, black shoes and navy blue socks, and dark blue tubes shaping into a heart coming from her shoes to some object-the size of a baseball-hovering over her heart._

_The girl's appearance smacked Hong Kong's head like a baseball bat._ Koishi…?

_There's no mistake; it really is Koishi Komeiji from Touhou Project. Though why would she appear in Hong Kong's dreams if she wasn't his favorite character? Not like that he doesn't like her, it's just… odd. And he thought that Byakuren Hijiri appearing in his dreams was weird enough._

_Hong Kong took another few steps closer, and reached out her hand to her to call her name. "Koishi?"_

_Koishi turned around abruptly, causing Hong Kong to stop in his tracks. The little satori's face bore only a small smile, though her emerald green eyes were a little hard. This unnerved him, though only just a little._

_"__Your heart has been sealed for the past three years and six months," Koishi said grimly. "Kept away by a barrier of a black depression. Only you and one other can shatter it."_

_The Cantonese boy blinked in confusion. "Huh?"_

_"__Follow your heart," Koishi continued. "Don't follow what people say. If you do, you will die"_

_"'__Don't follow what people say?' What do you mean?"_

_The satori did not answer; she slowly sank within the water, never taking a breath as she submerged._

_Hong Kong ran to Koishi, but found her submerged under the water's surface completely, leaving behind her sunhat. He pick it up to examine it. He never touched a fictional character's accessories, let alone touching them themselves. The black sunhat was canvas, the yellow ribbon a fine silk one. He then noticed strange writing in white (actually, it looked as if it was written by a white coloring pencil) on the top of the hat. Curious, Hong Kong took a glance at it, and saw it was actually Japanese writing, much to his disappointment. But then he begins to suspect that the writing is linked to what Koishi is saying, after reading the writing a few times over./i_

"Lunch is ready aru~~!" China said cheerfully with an equally happy smile as he abruptly opened Hong Kong's door, but his face changed to confusion as he saw that the personified city-state was already asleep in his bed. Well, he's on his bed, but not in a proper sleeping position. "Oh, he's already asleep, aru."

China debated internally whether he should wake Hong Kong up or just leave him be. He wanted to wake him up, but he knows how fussy and cranky he can be when someone suddenly wakes him up forcibly when he's sound asleep. Then again, if China leaves him sleeping, he'd be awake through the night and might have a hard time getting back to sleep.

With a sigh, the Chinese man walked up to Hong Kong and sat on the end of his bed, though the sudden sinking of one spot the surface did not cause him to stir in his sleep. Worried, China moved Hong Kong's larger bangs out of his face, though it proved fruitless since the bang strands would often fall straight down, the tips pricking his nose. He was relieved, though, that he saw Hong Kong's torso expanding then retracting, indicating that he's still breathing and not suffering another heart attack. But then his worry grew a little, showing that Hong Kong might have another one.

Needless to say, China once again moved away Hong Kong's larger bangs from his face and leaned down to plant a kiss on his eyebrow. This, however, made the Cantonese teenager stir, then lay on his back and open his eyes to see his beloved guardian hovering over him, his face containing no expression.

Hong Kong then asked, "Um, how long was I, like, asleep?"

"Around two hours, aru," China bluntly replied.

Hong Kong then rubbed his eyes and got up, with China getting out of the way. "I was worried you had another heart attack so I went upstairs to check on you, aru."

"Yeah… thanks for that," Hong Kong mumbled while looking away.

"Anyways," said China as he got up from Hong Kong's bed. "I made lo mein for lunch!"

Hong Kong looked at China and asked, "Why is it that every August, you make my favorites three times a day, everyday, for 31 days?"

China resisted replying "Because it helps you forget what happened on this month three years ago, aru" due to the emotional pain he's been through previously. "Oh, no real reason, aru. Would you like something different, aru?"

Hong Kong got up and stretched. "No thanks, you know that I love lo mein and other meals you make for me." _Though I can see why, teacher._

China smiled again. "Great, aru! Now let's go." He then exited Hong Kong's bedroom, with him slowly following along.

Part of him wanted to not eat, worrying that he might vomit again, but another part of him wanted to eat since he already coughed up his breakfast. That, and if he doesn't, China would get mad at him. _Teacher,_ he thinks. _Everyday, you always make my favorite meals to help me forget what happened three years back then… but it's hard to forget. I'll probably never forget it. Next year, for sure… I will "die."_

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><p>*I have this silly headcanon that HK is a Touhou junkie. And so is Iceland, though not as much.<p>

**There's another headacanon of mine is that HK and Taiwan are actually blood-related.


	2. Chapter 2: Chance Meeting

Hi, it's me again! And here's another chapter for Month of sorrow! I'm so excited to share this on ! I also have a preview image I'm working on, but once I'm done with that, I'll submit the first two chapters on my DeviantART along with the preview pic, so sit tight!

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><p>The sudden ringtone of IOSYS's "Marisa Stole the Precious Thing"* on Hong Kong's Blackberry cell phone barely startled him out of his sleep. In the pitch darkness, he looked for his phone, which is on his nightstand, and picked it up to turn the volume down, as to not accidentally wake China up. He then turned the screen on to see that it was actually Iceland, his best friend of six years, who sent him a text saying, "U alright? contactd u on skype but got no ansr."<p>

Upon reading this, his memory jogged. He was playing Touhou in the late afternoon, and he received a Skype call from his best friend. He opted to answer, but he declined to, knowing that he wasn't in any good mental condition to talk with Iceland. Now that Iceland sent him a text about this, it struck a chord within Hong Kong to talk to him. But he looked at the time in the top right of his phone: 2:12 AM. Given that there's a 6-hour time difference between the actual Hong Kong and Scandinavia (with Iceland, though, it's six and a half hours), Iceland would have waited until between ten in the morning and noontime to chat with Hong Kong on Skype.

On the other hand, though, the two barely talked on Skype, let alone in real life, mostly due to Hong Kong's depression over his chronic heart problems and chest pains. Okay, sure, he was comfortable with talking with China, but he wasn't sure of his conformity of talking with his best friend from across East Asia to Northern Europe. Then again, talking with Iceland always puts Hong Kong at ease, so he texted back, "fine. sleepy till u woke me up. tlk 2 u on skype, k?" and turned his phone off.

Hong Kong then turned on his lamp shade to provide a little light and got out from his bed to his desk. He sat in his arm chair and opened up his laptop computer, then pressed the power button to get it out of sleep. He winced at the sudden brightness of the plasma screen, but squinted his eyes as he lowered the brightness and contrast of it so that he could see better in the dim light. He put on his panda-motif headphones (as not to accidentally wake China up) and then logged in to his computer to open up Skype, then clicked on missed calls. He clicked on Iceland's Skype number and waited for Iceland to pick up.

Eventually, after a few minutes of waiting, he sees Iceland in the screen, adjusting his webcam so that he could get a better angle when talking to his Cantonese best friend. Judging from the brightness of Iceland's bedroom, Hong Kong could guess it's nine in the morning in Scandinavia, which hurt his sleepy eyes.

At last Iceland got his webcam adjusted to the position he wanted. Hong Kong said, holding back his yawn, "Why are you calling me so early in the morning? Do you even know the time difference between Northern Europe and East Asia?"

"Li, you've been like, barely talking to me since you've got out of the hospital in the Philippines," Iceland replied. "Actually you've been barely talking to me during the past few months this year. I've been sending you Skype calls, but you never answer."

"I was busy with a lot of things, Ice," said Hong Kong.

Iceland snickered. "Yeah, playing Touhou project and stuff like that."

Hong Kong gave him an "Are you an idiot?" look. "No, just other stuff _besides_ Touhou that teacher has caught me up on, and it's been wearing me down. This year, some of the weight was off my shoulders, though."

Now it's Iceland's turn to give him the same look. "Li, I know you're lying. I can tell because the light in your eyes is slipping away teeny bit by teeny bit. It's been like that after every heart attack or cardiac arrest you've had for the past two years since that incident."

Hong Kong rubbed his eyes with his fingers to the bridge of his nose with an annoyed groan. "Ugh, don't remind me of that, please, teacher and I have already suffered enough as it is."

"I'm talking about your chronic heart problems," said Iceland, a little annoyed. "To me, every August they seem to get worse and almost kill you!"

The Hongkonger boy looked up at the screen facing his best friend, only looking has his berry-purple eyes. Hong Kong himself tried not to show it, but you could tell that his golden eyes are slightly glazed, the highlights in them slowly slipping away.

He then sighed. "I know they are. Ice… Ice, I really don't know if I could survive this year. I'd most likely be dead the end."

The Icelandic teen's eyes softened, but he said, "Li, don't say that! I'm sure you'll get better in due time, you just have to believe it!"

Hong Kong sighed. "No matter how many times I tell myself that…" He paused. "In my mind, I'll recover, but… but in my heart… my heart would just quit on me."

"Now you're just outright depressing!" Iceland blurted out, his voice almost high-pitched. "Whatever heart meds you take, you'll be fine!"

"Ice, marijuana can cure epilepsy, but my heart medications can't cure my heart attacks," Hong Kong said bluntly. "Nor can they cure my cardiac arrests, either."

"Just…" Iceland began, his eyes glazing and voice shaking slightly. "Just don't… die on me. Like you nearly did three years ago…"

Hong Kong's French gold eyes softened next. "...Emil…"

Iceland hearing his human name made him perk up. Hong Kong almost never used his human name, usually nicknaming him "Ice," only using it in solemn moments. Even now, it felt like years since Iceland heard that name. The same went for Hong Kong, since Iceland would refer to him as his normal human name.

Iceland then composed himself and tried to be straight-faced, though he could feel his eyelids swelling slightly, tears threatening to come out. "A-anyways, America's holding a meeting at his place, and he's invited nearly everyone to attend. That includes me, you, the Italy brothers, and lots everyone."

"What time is the meeting?"

"Around noon-ish, one in the afternoon tops."

Hong Kong sighed again. Then again, he hasn't seen America in a long while, so he might visit his place again. It'll help him get his mind off of his heart troubles... But he's worried about what other people would say if his heart attacks occurred there. Even worse, what if he has a heart attack all alone with no one around?

"Um, Li?" Iceland asked, bring Hong Kong back to reality.

"Ice, I'm going back to bed, see you tomorrow." Hong Kong closed Skype before Iceland could protest and shut off his laptop. He then put himself in bed and closed his eyes for a few minutes.

"That reminds me, I need to set my alarm," he whispered as he turned to his side to reach for his alarm clock and setting it for 3:00AM. "Either I set my alarm now and get packing for America's place, or risk being woken up by teacher to endure his incessant nagging about me being a lazy-ass." _Not my own damn fault that I'm not a morning person, though!_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Time-skip to America's Place~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hong Kong raised his right arm above in front of his forehead to shield his eyes from the blinding sun. Even though the summer solstice is over, the days are just as hot as ever, even for Hong Kong, and especially Iceland, who was standing right next to him. China is also there except that he's wearing sunglasses (though Hong Kong would just assume he's doing this to embarrass him) with his arms crossed, looking at the U.N. building with ease.

"Eeef, it's just as hot as Death Valley," Hong Kong commented.

"I wholeheartedly agree," Iceland replied, his slightly moistened pale face glistening in the sun's rays. Because of his pale skin, Iceland is usually wary about getting sunburnt whenever it's sunny out.

"You guys will cool down once you get in, aru," China added in. "Let's go, we've got no time to waste, aru; the meeting will take place an hour and a half from now, aru."

"Yeah, sure, Yao," said Iceland as he, Hong Kong and China walked towards the front doors of the U.N. building.

By now, Hong Kong's eyes are starting to hurt from squinting so much to protect his eyes from being fried by the sun's rays. Why in the world did it slip his (and Iceland's) mind(s) to bring along sunglasses? Not like this is crucial for coming to the World Meeting or anything. Then again, he just wanted to hang out with America and his brother, Canada, since it's been far too long since they last saw each other.

"Ve! There you guys are!" a familiar chirpy voice called out.

China, Iceland and Hong Kong stopped in the shade of the U.N. building with Hong Kong and Iceland putting their arms down to see North Italy and his brother, Romano, waiting outside the doors, which puzzled the three all at once. Were the doors even locked or something? Or rather the doors themselves were heavy and there were either too stupid to know that they are heavy or too weak to even open them, or else too lazy to do so. "Feli, Lovino," Hong Kong was the first to say. "So you're here."

"Yeah, duh," Romano scoffed. "The doors were locked, so we had no other choice but to wait for the hamburger bastard to open them up for us."

"I honestly don't think that America would, like, keep the U.N. building doors locked," Iceland said next. "I mean, to prevent unwanted intruders, yeah, but other than that, that's pretty stupid of him to do such a thing."

"Actually, if I may…" Hong Kong walked towards the door and pulled the handle as hard as he could and eventually, the door itself finally budged. Then he pushed the door open half way and acted as a human doorstop so that China, Iceland, and the Italy brothers could come in, with him being the last to enter.

He let out a silent sigh as the sudden coolness of air from the U.N. building's air conditioning struck his body, completely relieving his overheated skin.

"Grazie, Li Xiao~!" Italy chirped with a wink.

"Yeah, grazie," said Romano begrudgingly.

"You're welcome, guys," replied Hong Kong, ignoring the Southern Italian's rude thank-you verbal gesture. "Did you guys, like, actually think that the doors were locked?"

"Well, the front doors wouldn't open, so we assumed that they were locked," Romano explained.

"Well, when Hong Kong opened it, it wasn't even locked to begin with, aru," said China as he took his sunglasses off and put it in his suit pocket. "Because knowing Alfred, when he calls for a meeting at his place, he opens the doors two hours before the time the meeting itself starts, aru."

Iceland scanned the long hallway. "I don't think I see him around these parts."

"That's because Alfred usually holds meetings either on the second or middle floors of this building," Hong Kong said. "Let's go. We've got plenty of time."

"Ve~ right behind you, Li Xiaaaaoooo~!" said Italy as he skipped behind Hong Kong.

Romano, Iceland, and China followed as well. "Che, we might as well." _I swear if I see those potato bastards' faces ever again…!_

And so, only two hours had passed since Hong Kong, China, Iceland, and the Italy brothers came into the building, but only an hour and a half passed since the meeting started. The beginning was no different from the meetings held; England and France would fight over the littlest of things, Prussia was trying to hit on Canada with the latter rebuffing his advances towards him as always, America yelling over everyone else, Italy trying to talk with Germany, who was scolding him, the works. While the chaos and disorder usually occurs, only few pairs were able to keep their heads cool by talking with each other privately. Hong Kong and Iceland is no exception. Usually, the two would talk with each other on what their relatives were doing, what Touhou PV they've watched recently, some amusing and funny things they found on their Tumblrs, even send texts to each other when none of them felt like talking. Sometimes they reminisce about the past; how their friendship started and the like.

Hong Kong was scrolling down through his Tumblr, as well as Iceland, to show each other the funny and cool stuff they've reblogged recently, whether it's Touhou Project or other stuff besides that. With Iceland's case, it would be furry animals, furry spiders and tarantulas included (much to Hong Kong's dismay, given his arachnophobia), and with Hong Kong, it would be his older sister Taiwan's zoo updates on their first giant panda cub born there, though it would be privately, knowing China's Cute Obsession Syndrome, particularly over baby pandas.

"Did you like, know that Hopeless Masquerade got released in Reitaisai 10** three months ago in May?" Hong Kong was previously saying.

"I've heard," Iceland had replied. "Is that why you went to the tenth Reitaisai with me and Japan that month to get it?"

"Well, aside from getting a few PC-98*** and Windows-generation nendoroids and two yukkuri Aya Shameimaru and Remilia Scarlet plushies I wanted to get, no."

"A few more of these, Li? You'll barely have any room for those! And PC-98? didn't you sell the PC-98 Touhou games at an online auction ever since you downloaded the English patch of Phantasmagoria of Flower View?"

"Yeah I know, but I only liked the PC-98 characters more than the first five Touhou games' stories, and only a few got popularized, let alone only four of them being revitalized."

"Revitalized? What do you mean?"

"Well, in the original PC-98 games, Reimu looked originally liked your typical 1990's anime shrine maiden; purple hair, red eyes, white tubes, longer hair, wearing a plain red bow, traditional miko clothes, and Marisa wore purple and had red hair and eyes on her first appearance in Story of Eastern Wonderland and-"

Of course, their conversation would abruptly end with Germany shouting over the loud nations to keep quiet and listen to whatever topic they will discuss about, courtesy choice of America, of course. (_As long as it's serious and all,_ Iceland thought.)

As of the present time, Hong Kong became bored of listening to America's lectures (even though his dialogue was somewhat erratic) and was resting his head on his hand. He tried as he could to listen intently to what America's saying, but him talking with Iceland in the middle of the night yesterday (in Iceland's case, the morning) made him drowsy today. Of course, he really wouldn't if only he answered Iceland's first Skype call during the day.

Ultimately, the Hongkonger just stared blankly forward, slowly tuning out what America is saying (followed by Germany and Japan). His mind then wandered off to the dream of him and Koishi the other night. Sure, on Tumblr, people would even talk about the weirdest, acid-trip-inducing dreams they might have with anime and video game characters being ranging from terrorists to just being plain weirdos or being themselves. In this case Hong Kong's the dream seemed more… grim, with an equally grim mood.

_"__Follow your heart. Don't follow what other people say. If you do, you will die."_ The cryptic words by the little satori girl only left Hong Kong confused. Though he is sure that the Japanese writing in Koishi's hat is linked to what she said somehow. Lacking in knowledge of the Japanese language, Hong Kong decided to talk to Japan about it, since he might know the meaning behind this, language-wise.

Eventually, Germany called for a half-hour break, leaving the other nations to scatter about, some of them leaving the room for a while. Hong Kong was initially relieved that the break was called, so that he could talk to Japan about his dream.

The Cantonese boy got up from his chair and yawned, rubbing away the drowsiness in his eyes. He then felt someone tap on his shoulder. By impulse, he turned around to see Iceland.

"You okay?" he asked. "You've been spacing out ever since Germany shouted at everyone from across the room."

"I'm just tired from the jet-lag, is all," Hong Kong replied as he walked towards to Japan, who was talking with Italy and Germany.

"U-uh, Li?" Iceland spoke up.

"Hm?"

"Don't you like, wanna hang for a while?"

"There's something I have to talk to Kiku about, I'll talk with you after."

"Oh, come on, it's only for a minute, if not more!"

"Ice, it's important. I'll talk with you hereafter."

With that, the teen city-state walked up to Japan, who was just done talking with Italy and Germany (with Romano sneering at Germany awhile). "Kiku. Do you like, have a minute?"

The Japanese man turned around, a bit surprised, though he collected himself after seeing it was Hong Kong talking to him. "Hai, I suppose I have, now that I'm done talking with Italy-kun and Germany-san," Japan replied. "What do you want to talk about?"

Hong Kong waited until everybody was talking amongst themselves (he had to resist giggling when Norway persuaded Iceland to call him "big brother"). "I had a weird dream. Last night."

Japan blinked in confusion. "A weird dream?"

"Yes."

"Why are you talking to me about this?"

Hong Kong guided the Japanese man to the white dry-erase board so that they could talk more privately. "Because I have a feeling it may have something to do with my chronic heart problems," he whispered.

"I'm sorry, I still don't understand," Japan replied under his breath.

Hong Kong then explained his dream about Koishi, telling him to "follow his heart or he will die," to the point where he picks up Koishi's hat and discovers Japanese writing inside it.

Japan, now a little perplexed, said, "So you're saying a fictional character like Koishi from Touhou Project is threatening to kill you? That sounds somewhat ludicrous."

"No, it doesn't because she never said that explicitly," Hong Kong replied. "But still, I don't see why Koishi of all people would tell me to 'follow my heart' or something like that. And I, like, barely even watch Disney movies anymore."

"You said that Koishi's hat had writing in my language, yes?"

"Yes. I remember the whole of it."

"Can you write what the writing said?"

Upon being asked, Hong Kong picked up a random dry-erase marker and carefully drew out the kanji and hiragana characters he had seen in Koishi's hat. Thank God that he has an eidetic memory, especially in dreams such as this. "There."

Japan then read the sentence, but looked taken back.

"Well, what does it say?" Hong Kong asked.

"Well, that's very interesting…" Japan pondered out loud. "But very right at the same time."

"What?"

"The sentence itself loosely translates to 'find the one you love.'"

"Another one of those," Hong Kong said under breath out of irritation. "Why am I not surprised?" He really doesn't like it when there are cliches happening, especially in real life, he goes all for originality.

"Well, if we go by the Red Threads of Fate," Japan said. "This roughly means that you are fated to be with the person you meet next."

Hong Kong gave him an "I'm going to kill you" look. "...Kiku, nobody even believes that stuff."

"Ohhh~~ but mon ami, this might be true~" said France as he swooned over to Hong Kong, much to his irritation.

Japan, on the other hand, looks startled that France is listening in to their conversation. "F-France-san?! When did you…?"

"Exactly how much did you hear, Francis?" the Cantonese teen asked defensively.

The so-called Nation of Love relaxed and replied, "From what Japan had translated to the bit about the Red Threads of Fate. You will be destined to be with someone forever, non?"

"If by that, you mean someone I know for around five years with a bond deeper than friendship which you think could easily be comparable to gay love, then that is-" Hong Kong stood on his toes so that he could get in France's face. "-complete. And utter. Bullshit."

"U-um, actually," Japan spoke up. "I just told him that he will be destined to be with someone he will meet next. I didn't say anything about someone Hong-kun knows for a long time, or even know that for that matter."

"Can't we just, like, play along with the fact it's gonna be someone I've never met in my life?" Hong Kong asked, attempting to stray from the with-friendship-comes-love subject, especially if it involves his best friend he's known for over five years.

"That is what the Red Threads of Fate are, Hong-kun," Japan replied.

"Still, though," France added in. "You will fall in love with someone eventually, Li Xiao. Open your heart and let yourself go~"

_Blah, blah, blah, keep talking you stupid crite,_ Hong Kong thought annoyingly. "Yeah, whatever. Thanks for telling me, Kiku, now I can move on."

He then left the meeting room, leaving Japan unsure about how he would handle this and France thinking about the possible female nation suitors for him (though he would be irritated in the end).

Meanwhile, Hong Kong catches up to Iceland, who was just talking to Turkey, and puts his hand on his shoulder saying, "Sorry, Turkey, I need to borrow Iceland for a minute." Turkey, in response, nodded, saying that he was done talking with the Icelandic teen anyway and lets him go.

Hong Kong took Iceland's hand and led him to the meeting room doors, smiling. "Hey, Ice, you wanna, like, hang with me at the park when the meeting's over?"

"Yeah!" Iceland said enthusiastically. "Though, which one?"

"I found one that's nearest to the hotel we're staying," Hong Kong explained. "We could like, put on our PicSkates**** and skate around till sundown."

"That sounds like fun. I'm in. But do know where the nearest park is?"

"I've looked up the directions for it on Google Maps sometime before the meeting, I'll lead you there."

"Sweet! We'll meet each other at our hotel!"

With that announced, the two best friends high-fived and brofisted each other. When the break is over, they, along with the other nations (with Belarus creeping up behind Russia in a humorous manner), retreated to the meeting hall, with Hong Kong looking like he's more alert, now that he's talked to Japan about his dream and with him explaining the meaning of the sentence in Koishi's hat. Though he could not help but wonder: Him being destined to be the one he meets next? He has a feeling that it's not gonna be the other women nations (most of them are five, six, seven years older than him so that's off the list. Well, save for Seychelles, but Hong Kong thinks he is too old for her biological age).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Time-skip to their hotel room*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The meeting is finally over, and Hong Kong and Iceland went back to their hotel room to change into their casual clothes so that they could hang out in the park Hong Kong mentioned. Iceland dressed lightly, consisting of a white tank top with a light blue button-up short-sleeved shirt and denim cargo shorts with a puffin pendant around his neck. By contrast, Hong Kong went with his black "Bad Apple" t-shirt tucked neatly in his black leather pants and a red UFO necklace around his neck. When asked by his best friend about this, Hong Kong responded that black is his favorite color next to red and gold.

Needless to say, though, the two went out of the hotel with their PicSkates slung over their shoulders by the laces to the park, with Hong Kong leading the way using Google Maps for the directions to said park on his Blackberry.

It took them around thirty minutes to get to the nearest park by foot. Iceland once commented that the main park area looks like a golfing course. Despite this, he and Hong Kong went through the entrance, often taking their time to look at the summer scenery. The cherry trees have long since shed their blossoms, and a few bees were hovering over the small wildflowers in the grassy fields, followed by a cool breeze, much to the best friends' relief. "It's actually pretty nice out," Hong Kong commented.

"I know," replied Iceland. "It's pretty relaxing. In my country most you can see are tundras, taigas, and such. Very rarely you get to see spring flowers."

"Yeah, I noticed, even with your beaches as rocky as Arthur's. The beaches back in China and Japan are, like, totally gorgeous there."

Iceland stopped in his tracks. "Hey, Li. When the next Reitaisai or Comiket comes, let's go to the beach."

Hong Kong stopped as well, looking at his Icelandic friend with a smile and put out his hand. "It's a promise, then."

Iceland then took Hong Kong's hand and shook it, and they continued to walk forward.

The two saw a bench in the distance and they sat on it, taking off their shoes and putting on their PicSkates. Hong Kong actively got up and did a backward spin, rotating only once, and waiting for Iceland to finish up tying his second skate. When he's done, he asked, "So what should we do? Ice dance at the center of the park, or what?"

Hong Kong jutted his left foot forward and looked at it in thought. Then he said, "Hey, how about a contest? Speed-skating down to the railing up ahead and grinding down and doing a camel spin in the end." He then smirked. "And the loser has to buy me McDonald's."

Iceland gave away a smirk as well. "Alright-y, but if I win, I'm buying you a cheeseburger at McDonald's; and you're gonna have to eat it. All of it. Every last bit."

_To even put down that bet despite the fact that I hate greasy foods,_ Hong Kong thought, though he didn't explicitly show his disgust. "It's on, dude."

Both of them got into their starting positions, looking forward.

"Ready," Iceland announced in Icelandic. "Set. GO!"

With the vocal signal, both Hong Kong and Iceland dashed forward in their PicSkates, where they could see the railing in the distance. Hong Kong got a few inches ahead of Iceland, getting to the railing slightly quicker than him. He could feel the chest pain rising suddenly, but he ignored it as he sped on. He is most sure to win, as he really doesn't want to get forced into eating a cheeseburger.

At last, Hong Kong went ahead of Iceland, jumping on the railing and grinding downwards on it, and was about to jump off when suddenly-

"AAGHH!"

The Cantonese city-state accidentally landed on an unknown person, front first, shouting "OWW! What the heck?!" As he was recovering, he tried to stand up, but somehow, their necklaces' chains somehow got tangled with each other, the person he tackled by accident was a tanned girl with spiky black bangs and with only her front locks showing. She's also wearing a brass headband with a gold sun on the left side and a white ribbon tied around it and has gold-brown eyes. She was apparently stunned when Hong Kong landed on her.

"Ah! I-I'm sorry!" said Hong Kong.

The girl shook her head and replied, "Uh, n-no, it's my fault, I probably should've seen you coming down the railing."

Hong Kong then tried to get up, but wound up lifting the girl up towards him, their faces just four inches away from each other, and their legs got tangled with each others', making Hong Kong's face heat up with embarrassment.

"Th-this is really awkward!" the girl said, laughing nervously.

"Uh, here, stand up with me," Hong Kong instructed.

The girl did so, though she yelped when she felt like she was being held by her necklace, due to the fact that because Hong Kong was wearing his skates, he looked two-and-a-half inches taller than his original height. Hong Kong then proceeded to try to untangle the chains.

"Li! Are you okay?" Iceland asked, carefully walking down the stairway pavement.

"I'm fine, Ice," Hong Kong replied. "Just help me untangle our chains, will you?"

Iceland then skated to his best friend and the girl and tried to help, but with no success. Finally, Hong Kong got their chains untangled.

"I'm really sorry, honest," Hong Kong apologized.

"Oh, no, it's fine," said the girl with a smile. "I probably didn't see you coming down the railing, anyway."

The Cantonese teen took a quick time to look at what the girl is wearing. Her outfit was light orange frilly summer tank top, denim short shorts and is wearing white wedge sandals. She also has a flat chest.

Beside the two, America, who was apparently with the girl, laughed in a teasing manner from looking at Hong Kong and her.

Hong Kong looked at him and raised his thick brow, confused. "Uh, are you like, okay, Alfred?"

America let out a teasing chuckle. "How long have you two lovebirds been…" he finished in a sexual tone, "going steady?"

In response, Iceland snickered, whilst Hong Kong put his fists on his hips and replied defensively, "We just met, Alfred."

"You two guys know each other?" the girl asked.

"Yeah, we do," Hong Kong replied.

"Same here, but not as much," Iceland added in.

"Though you seemed questionable, Alfred. What's the connection you have with this girl?"

"Oh, her?" America asked.

"Hi! I'm Philia, the Outer Islands of the Republic of the Philippines," the girl introduced herself. "My human name's Charice Pacquiao, and I'm Alfred's best friend!"

Hong Kong knitted his brows in confusion. "Outer… Philippines…? I thought-"

"Yeah?" Philia said quizzically.

"Uh, never mind," Hong Kong replied. "My name's Hong Kong, a special administrative region in the People's Republic of China. Li Xiao Chun's my human name."

"And I'm the Republic of Iceland," Iceland said last. "Human name Emil Steillsson, and I'm Li's best friend."

"Well met, you guys!" said Philia cheerfully.

"Charice and I go way back," America spoke up.

"How long back?" asked Hong Kong.

"Around 145 years," Philia replied.

Both teen boys' eyes widened. "Seriously, 145?"

"Yep! How long have you two guys known each other?"

"Around five years," Iceland replied bluntly.

"That doesn't sound very long."

"To us, it is," Hong Kong said.

"Okay, however you put it," Philia shrugged, but winced slightly.

"Are you okay?" Hong Kong asked, concerned. "Does it still hurt?"

"Ngh… Yeah, just my head," Philia replied. "No worries."

"I'll walk you back to your hotel room," America offered.

"Thanks, Alfred."

"I guess we'll catch you later, Charice?" asked Hong Kong.

Philia smiled. "Yeah! We can exchange cell numbers sometime!"

"See ya, guys!" said America as he and Philia went in the direction they were going previously.

Iceland twiddled his thumbs nervously. "So… I guess it's a draw, then?"

Hong Kong's stomach growled in response to Iceland's question. "Yeah, I guess it is. Let's go to McDonald's."

He then went up the stairs in his skates and rolled to the bench where he and Iceland left their footwear. "I'm all for it," he said out loud awhile. "It's way past lunchtime, anyway." And he followed his best friend.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Time-skip to the hotel~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

America dropped off his best female friend to the hotel (the same hotel Hong Kong, Iceland, and most of the other nations are staying) she's staying with her younger brother, Luzon, the Inner Philippine Islands-goes by the name Rizal Pacquiao, and prefers keeping it that way-with them exchanging goodbyes as they went to their respective rooms. Philia's head pain increased slightly, though she tried to ignore it.

She then entered the room announcing, "Kuya! I'm home!"

Luzon, who was making meat sandwiches as a late lunch for him and his sister, turned his head to see her. "Oh, hey, ate. You're awfully late. I was making a late lunch."

Luzon, the younger brother, looked slightly different that Philia. His skin is mildly tanned, his hair is spiky, has gold-ish yellow eyes, and wears a gold hair pin on the right side. He also looked a little younger, though he's somewhat a few inches taller than his sister.

"Thanks!" Philia said with a smile. "Hey, Rizal, I just made friends with a really cool and nice person at the park."

Luzon stopped his work and looked at her suspiciously, though he plastered a playful smirk on his lips. "Oh, really? Let me guess, a guy?"

Philia giggled. "Well, yeah."

"What kind of guy?"

"I'm not telling~" Philia went into the bed area and laid down on one of the beds.

"So, you're not gonna tell me and just lay there?"

"I got a bit of a headache from being tackled by someone, Rizal," said Philia. "He apologized, though. I'm just gonna take a little nap."

Luzon sighed and went back to work on the sandwiches, muttering on why Philia couldn't just take some pain medication and what not.

Meanwhile, Philia laid on her bed, just getting ready to sleep. _Hopefully, I don't get a concussion from being tackled on by Li Xiao,_ she thought. She then remembered the time Hong Kong did, just while she was stunned. The way he looked at her was a little… lustful. Or else lovestruck.

The Filipino girl nuzzled against her pillow and giggled. _Well, he does look cute and hot~! I really can't wait to meet him next time!_

* * *

><p>*Here's the PV for the whole song: watch?v=1qS1kqhhebw Just type in .com and copy-paste the ending url at the end. =)

**No lie, Hopeless Masquerade was released at Reitaisai 10. =)

***For those who don't know what a PC-98 is, it's the Japanese equivalent of an old-school Windows computer, but with major differences, and I do mean major. =)

****If you don't know what a PicSkate is, go check this image out: . I also have this headcanon that Hong Kong and Iceland are really great skaters, whether it's on the ice or on dry land.


	3. Chapter 3: Attraction? -part 1-

Both Hong Kong and Iceland are in McDonald's, respectively, eating their late lunches after their little PicSkate race, which ended with Hong Kong accidentally knocking Philia down during her walk with America back in the park. Hong Kong was eating a yogurt parfait (given that he has vomited yesterday morning, and needs some fruit and dairy to settle his stomach), Iceland was eating a cheeseburger meal, given that the race ended in a draw (upon Hong Kong knocking down Philia by accident).

"Outer Philippine Islands…" Iceland was talking about Philia after he sipped his drink. "Well, if, um… Philia says she represents those, then what would the inner islands be?"

Hong Kong swallowed, even though it was forced (though he tried not to show it). "You got me. Before I got the travel brochure for the Philippine Islands three years ago, the main islands are Luzon, Visvayas and Mindanao, and its capital is Manila. I think the inner islands might either Luzon or Mindanao or Mindanao or Visvayas. Either way, if this Philia says she represents the Outer Philippine Islands, then logic would point out that the Inner Philippine Islands would be either a younger or older sibling."

"Similar to the Italy brothers and Germany and Prussia?"

"I guess so."

Hong Kong took another spoonful of his parfait and chewed and swallowed it slowly and reluctantly. Even though the plastic cup filled with of the yogurt parfait was only partly empty, he has to take his eating steady so that he would not vomit again. However, his stomach is becoming upset once again. He is trying to keep the yogurt and fruit in his stomach, but the pain is increasing steadily and is trying as hard as he could to not show it.

Unfortunately, Iceland noticed the uneasiness on his best friend's face. "Li, are you okay?"

"Ice, I'm fine," Hong Kong replied assuringly. "I just think that the yogurt tastes a little off."

"You're not dehydrated, are you? Usually you'd say whatever food you're eating tastes funny if you didn't drink enough water."

"Ice, I said I'm fine," the Hongkonger teen insisted.

"Okaayyyy, if you say so." Despite the worried look, Iceland continued to eat his cheeseburger.

Hong Kong continued to eat the parfait, despite the thick substance forming in his throat again and his nausea getting worse. A shiver went from his shoulders down to his spine and eventually, he quickly got up-mouthing "excuse me" to Iceland-and rushed to the men's bathroom with his hand to his mouth.

Thankfully, there's no one here, and Hong Kong prayed that no more would come in here. Already, both his torso and chest heaved automatically, trying to force something out of his throat, and he raced to the nearest toilet, coughing up and emptying what he ate of the yogurt parfait into the toilet bowl. He shakily put his hand to the handle and pushed it down, the contents he coughed up flushing away.

The Cantonese teen got up shakily, putting his hand onto the stall wall for support. He breathed heavily, feeling fatigued and exhausted from the exertion for holding his beloved parfait in. Eventually, he collected himself to get out of the stall to wash his hands and rinse his mouth to rid it of the nasty contents he coughed up forcefully.

He himself can't even bother to look at himself in the mirror anymore (except for his hands, arms, and upper torso). "Ugh… now I feel really sick…" he said out loud shakily. "What the heck am I going to do? I can't even hold back the nausea…" Hong Kong then sighed and let his legs give way, kneeling with his hands still locked on the pure white sink. "Maybe my subconscious really _is_ depressed…"

Needless to say, Hong Kong got up, despite his fatigue and exhaustion, walked out of the bathroom to return to the table where he and Iceland (who had just finished his drink and cheeseburger) sit at. He sat down in his seat and just stared at his half-finished yogurt parfait. He feels half-tempted, half-reluctant to finish it off.

"Li?" Iceland asked, which prompted Hong Kong to look up, his tarnished gold eyes meeting berry-colored ones.

"Um, yeah?"

"Are you feeling alright? You've been looking down ever since we got here."

"I said I'm fine, Ice, I'm just tired from the jet lag."

"Um, dude, your eyes are glazed."

This made the Hongkonger teenager more attentive. _Huh? How did…?_

"And your nose is a little red. Were you even crying a little or something? Or did you, like, vomit?"

Hong Kong had to resist sighing. _I knew I should've washed my face when I had the chance._ "No, I did not cry, nor did I even vomit."

"Oh, is that it." Iceland got up. "Let's go back to our hotel room."

"Yeah, I guess." Hong Kong picked up his yogurt parfait as he walked with Iceland and threw it in the trash just before the two exited out of McDonald's, untied their PicSkates from the railings and walked back.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Time-skip to the Hotel*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hong Kong plopped onto his bed and sighed, but then yawned. For once, he had been telling the truth about being drowsy from the jet lag. But how in the world is he going to tell Iceland that he threw up back in McDonald's?

He turned to his side and tried to keep his eyes open, but the fatigue is taking a toll on him just being awake. His mouth is starting to feel a little dry. Iceland was probably right in him not drinking enough water. He would try to get up and go into the kitchen area to get a glass, but his skull felt like it has jelly sloshing around in it and it's wearing him down.

"Hey, Li," said Iceland as he was walking into the bedroom area. "I ordered some Chinese food for dinner, so maybe you…" He trailed off as he saw Hong Kong laying on one of the beds. Concerned, the Icelandic teen walked up to his best friend's supposedly sleeping body and poked his shoulder. "Li? You awake?"

"Please go away," said Hong Kong groggily.

Iceland automatically complied, knowing that his best friend was tired from the jet lag during the trip to America. He then shrugged. "My loss, then," he said quietly. _Actually… the real reason why I ordered Chinese food for dinner was to cheer you up… and the restaurant I ordered from has a special on dim sum and wonton noodles, and you like those…_

Needless to say, Iceland walked away from Hong Kong, leaving him alone. He then went into the kitchen area to the refrigerator to get himself a can of Coke to drink. The iced tea he drank at McDonald's wasn't really enough to calm his nerves about Hong Kong's suspected physical illness.

As he took a sip, he heard a small cry. His head perked up, and scanned half of the hotel room he and Hong Kong are in. Iceland merely shook it off, thinking he was imagining things. He then heard another cry, this time a little louder. Now Iceland is starting to get paranoid. Where could this sound be coming from? He then heard some soft but heavy panting and grunting. Now intensely worried, Iceland put his Coke down on the dining table and rushed back to the bedroom area just to see his best friend groaning and panting submissively, clutching his "Bad Apple!" shirt tightly.

Fearing that Hong Kong might be suffering another heart attack, Iceland ran to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet there to take out the heart medicine Hong Kong regularly takes. Lucky thing that he brought his own medicine along. He rushed back to Hong Kong, only to see him having stopped. Now more worried than ever, Iceland set the meds down on his bed. He then pulled out Hong Kong's shirt from his leather pants and steadily took it off, exposing his faintly defined muscles as well as his Touhou tattoos; the Scroll of Sutra wrapping around his waist and Yukari Yakumo's boundary opening on his left lower arm, and in the middle of his chest a fleshed scar from the surgery he got of removing the bullet wound from his heart from three years ago.

With no time to waste in fear that his best friend might be "dead," Iceland put his hands together on the Cantonese teen's chest and started pressing down firmly repeatedly. When he wasn't making any movement, Iceland pressed down harder just to look for any sign of Hong Kong breathing just once. The Icelandic boy felt his lower eyelids swell with tears threatening to come out, his berry eyes glazing, no less.

_Come on, come on!_ Iceland urged mentally. _Come on, Li, don't die on me!_

"Ah~!"

Suddenly, the air from the Cantonese boy was forcefully exhaled out of his mouth, and relief washed over Iceland to see that, putting the weight off his chest.

He then embraced Hong Kong in a bear hug, pinning him down on his bed in the process, and nuzzled his neck. "Oh thank the gods, thank the GODS you're alive! I actually thought you died after that!"

Hong Kong couldn't help but wrap his arms around his best friend's torso to hug him back. "Yeah. Thanks for reviving me, I actually thought I was gonna be dead myself."

Iceland then got up and sat on the edge of Hong Kong's bed. The other teen boy did the same, but suddenly fell back down and put his hand to his head.

Worried, Iceland hovered over him, but Hong Kong said, "Ice, I'm okay, I'm just dizzy, is all."

With that, Iceland sighed and got off Hong Kong's bed to get the heart meds off of his, as well as returning to the bathroom to get a plastic cup and fill it with tap water. _I know it's not filtered, but it will have to do,_ he thought. He returned to Hong Kong, with the medication in his one hand and the water in the other, and popped off the cap to dump two pills in the palm of his hand. He then set the rest of the meds and the cap on the nightstand and gave the pills and water to his best friend. Hong Kong took both, taking in the pills first and swallowing them by drinking the water out of the plastic cup.

"Thanks, Ice," Hong Kong breathed a reply as he handed the cup back to Iceland.

Iceland put the cap back on the medicine container and threw the plastic cup in the trash. "You're welcome."

"Though…"

Iceland looked at the other teen quizzically. "'Though,' what?"

Hong Kong rolled to his side. "Though I highly doubt it would even decrease my risks for heart attacks… and cardiac arrests…"

"Li, don't be so pessimistic," said Iceland. "It's actually not every time you get more cardiac arrests than your heart attacks."

Hong Kong sighed. Iceland's probably right. Most of his heart problems consist of chest pains and heart attacks, and there are only a few occasions where he only gets cardiac arrests and winding up into short-term comas (usually between a few days and two weeks). Even so, though, he hated it. He hated it all. He hated his curse. He hated the crazed psycho of a policeman who took his heart health away with just one stray bullet. He hated August. And he even hated himself just for taking the damn Philippines travel brochure and wanting having to have a two-week vacation tour in the Philippine Islands. In fact, he actually _wished_ he hadn't taken the travel brochure at _all._

Suddenly, Hong Kong's mind went straight back to Philia, back at the park a few hours earlier. Now he suddenly felt bad for wishing he never got the brochure. If he hadn't, the teenaged city-state (nor Iceland, for that matter) wouldn't even have a chance meeting with the Filipino girl. Filipino… Philippines…

_Wait!_ Hong Kong thought suddenly. _If Philia says she represents the Outer Philippine Islands, then that must mean that_ she _must be the Philippines teacher was talking about. And he even forbade me to see her ever again just because she's a serial killer._

Serial killer?

Hong Kong smiled in amusement. That's a pretty ridiculous assumption coming from China just because eight of his people were shot to death by a Filipino rogue policeman. It's just one person, meaning, not the actual personification of it; let alone the whole actual country itself. Besides, Philia herself actually seemed nice and is not the type to kill eight of his own citizens. _Well, fuck it,_ he was thinking. _I saw the Philippines-well, half of it, really-in person, and it's likely I'll be able to see her again._

Eventually, sleep took over Hong Kong and he closed his eyes. _Besides… I think Philia… actually looks… kinda cute._

Meanwhile, Iceland just stared at Hong Kong's sleeping form, wondering if he had really fallen asleep. To his relief, his torso is expanding and retracting, a clear indicator that he's breathing properly now. "Well then, I guess I'm gonna eat all the Chinese food without you," he said quietly as he put the medication back in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.

The sudden vibration of Hong Kong's Blackberry phone in the drawer of his nightstand roused him from his sleep, knitting his thick eyebrows in disturbance. Groggily, he reached for the knob and pulled it, revealing his phone that vibrated for the last time. He pulled it out, turned it on just to see that he got a text message from someone with the number (206) 247-XXXX. Curious yet confused on why would someone text Hong Kong in the middle of the night (assuming that the person had the wrong number to text to), he opened it, and his French gold eyes widened when he saw what the text message itself actually said.

"Kumusta~!* It's me, Charice! 3"

Hong Kong blinked only once. Charice… It then dawned on him that Charice is actually Philia's human name, so in a logical sense, it would mean that it was Philia who sent the text message to his phone. Then again, why the heck would Philia text him in the middle of the night? More important, how did Philia get Hong Kong's cell phone number?

Curious on the notions, Hong Kong texted back, "Philia, howd u get my cell numbr? An txting me at 1 AM?" and touched "Send" and set his phone back on the nightstand, waiting for a straight answer.

The Cantonese teen let out a yawn. His fatigue had subsided halfway thanks to sleep. So he rolled over onto his stomach and put a pillow under his chest to make himself comfy, while he heard yet another few vibrates from his phone. He picked it up from the nightstand once again and read the text message, again none other than Philia.

Philia's text read: "lol Alfred texted me your cell phone number, so I have it in my contacts, and now I'm texting you! You should also save mine into your contacts so you wouldn't forget! ^_^"

Hong Kong stifled a yawn, but nevertheless texted back, "OK, fair enuf," and touched "Send" again.

Several seconds later, he got another text from Philia. "Hey, wanna go to the park with me tomorrow? :-)"

_The park…?_ Hong Kong pondered. Why in the world would Philia text him about going to the park tomorrow? Then again… then again, Hong Kong probably thinks that neither he nor Iceland even met Philia properly due to him nearly crushing Philia to death during his PicSkate race with Iceland, so tomorrow at the park may be a good time and place to apologize.

With those notions in mind, Hong Kong texted back, "Yea, sure thng. Whn?"

Philia texted back once more in no time, "Around 11 in the morning. Meet me there then! ^_^"

With the last text he received, Hong Kong turned his phone off and went back to sleep (yawning firstly). _I should probably bring Ice along,_ he thought. _Or rather… No, no, I probably shouldn't. I'm the one who knocked Philia down by accident, not him, so he has little to do with this._

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*The Next Morning, at the Park*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Despite being mostly cloudy today, the sun is quite bright. Bright enough for someone like Hong Kong, who had just arrived at the park entrance, had to squint his eyes and frown a little altogether so that his eyes wouldn't hurt from the brightness of the sun. It's also a few degrees cooler than yesterday, so it's enough for Hong Kong to dress in his red short-sleeved Chinese shirt with gold trim and embroidered dragon patterns, black leather pants and black zip-up biker boots. Needless to say, Philia did say that she and Hong Kong are to meet at the park, so the main entrance would be a good place to start, assuming that she's here. He also nodded to Iceland that he's going out for a while beforehand, saying that he's going to meet with Philia. Iceland offered to come along, but he told him to stay until he comes back, adding that he needs to apologize to her for knocking her to the ground yesterday.

And now here is Hong Kong, dressed in his casual wear, at the park entrance. Though he was thinking up how to address his apology to Philia. Since Hong Kong himself is a city-state and special administrative region of the People's Republic of China and Philia is a nation, he believes it would be wise to issue a verbal apology to her (since China taught him as a child that though apologies among humans in common life are sometimes casual, there are other times that those apologies have to be on a high politeness level and is common courtesy and manners among nations).

Just then, his thoughts are interrupted when someone called out to him. Instantly, Hong Kong entered and there he sees Philia, who's waving to him with a huge smile plastered on her face.

Hong Kong smiled back, "Oh, hey, Philia!"

"You came right on time!" said Philia cheerfully. "Though I really insist you call me Charice."

Hong Kong paused briefly, but said, needless to say, "Okay, then, Charice. Any real reason why you invited me here?"

"To hang out with you, of course!" Philia answered cheerfully. "Also, and because we didn't meet properly yesterday-"

Hong Kong put his hands up. "Uh, yeah, Charice, about that…"

"Yeah?"

"I just, like, wanna apologize for knocking you down earlier."

"Aww, that's okay, I forgive you~ Even though my head was hurting."

The Cantonese boy took a couple steps towards the Filipina** and placed his fingers on her black hair. "Does it still hurt, though?"

Philia gently moved Hong Kong's arm away, but let out a chuckle. "No, not anymore. Hey, let's go get some ice cream! My treat! You want some?"

Now, Hong Kong ate a couple English muffins and eggs (cooked up by Iceland) this morning, though a little ice cream wouldn't hurt (all the while praying that he wouldn't vomit again like he did yesterday and the day before). "Yeah, sure, Charice."

Philia giggled. "Awesome! Come follow me, there's a parlor up ahead!"

With those words the two teenagers walked beside each other, with Philia swinging her arms back and forth and Hong Kong's hands in his pants pockets. Occasionally, Philia's arm would brush against Hong Kong's. At first, it annoyed him and tried to go a little farther from her, but with each brush, Hong Kong would feel a slight electrical surge run through his body. He brushed it off as a nostalgic feeling, as it has been two years since he went through rehabilitation and bonding with the Filipino people awhile. When Philia brushed Hong Kong's arm accidentally again, it felt electric again, only this time, it was a little stronger. He could feel his face heat up just a little, though no redness appeared on his cheeks, which confused him. Naturally, Philia's ethnicity is Filipino, and her own people treated him like a family member. So why does it look so different now?

Eventually, Hong Kong and Philia got their own individual ice cream cones and sat down in front of a maple tree under the shade so that their ice cream doesn't melt as quickly. Awhile, Hong Kong took the time to look at Philia curiously, who was happily lapping up a hot pink ice cream, which is probably either sherbet or frozen yogurt. Honestly, he had never hung out with a girl before, save for Taiwan and Vietnam, his other older sister, but he has hung out with Iceland dozens of hundreds of times before over the years, so hanging out with a girl should be the same as hanging out with both Iceland and his sisters.

Hong Kong took a few licks off of his chocolate vanilla ice cream and asked, "Silly question time, is the hot pink ice cream supposed to be sherbet or frozen yogurt?"

Philia swallowed her recent bite off her ice cream. "Yep, it's sherbet! Watermelon! I like watermelon, even though I prefer coconuts."

"If you like coconuts, why not just get a coconut-flavored sherbet? Or they didn't have that?"

"They didn't have it. Besides, as much as I love coconuts, anything that's coconut-flavored is just bad-tasting. I mean, I would have gone for a mango sherbet, but I just saw that the stand's out. What a bummer." Philia then perked up and turned around. "Oh, and the mango's my kuya's favorite fruit!"

Hong Kong blinked in confusion. "'Kuya?'"

"Oh, kuya's Filipino for brother," Philia clarified. "In Tagalog, it's kapatid."

"Surely you mean tagalong?" Hong Kong asked.

"No, I mean Tagalog, silly!" Philia's lips formed into a playful smile. "It's the language spoken in Manila!"

"I thought the whole of the Philippines speak Filipino." _Wait, did she just call me "silly?"_

"We do, it's just that we have different dialects," the Filipina explained. "Though we do have preferences on which to speak. For example, I prefer to speak Filipino, while my kuya-his name's Rizal, by the way-prefers to speak Tagalog whenever talking with the Manila city folk."

"'Rizal?' Isn't that a last name?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you, silly me!" Philia giggled, which Hong Kong thought it was somewhat cute. For some bizarre reason. "Rizal's my kuya. His nation name's Luzon and he represents the Inner Philippine Islands. Oh, and he's a year younger than me."

"I actually suspected that," Hong Kong confessed. "Actually, it's Ice and I who suspected it."

Now it's Philia's turn to blink in confusion. "'Ice?'"

"Oh, it's just a nickname I gave to Emil," Hong Kong explained as he shifted his sitting position to make himself comfortable. "And in turn, he nicknames me Li, so yeah, we like, have a really mutual friendship. A bromance, rather, as Francis would call it. And really, a year older than your brother?" He let out a chuckle. "That's like that with me and Lin Yi."

"Who's Lin Yi?" Philia asked when she finished eating her watermelon sherbet to her waffle cone.

"Her nation name is Taiwan," Hong Kong explained as he took another bite from his ice cream, which is starting to melt. "And she's my sister. I also have an older sister named Vietnam-her human name's Kim-but I don't spend as much time with her as Lin Yi."

"Aww." Philia ate up the cone and wiped her hands on her napkins.

"That totally reminds me, though," the Cantonese teen said as he quickly licked up the ice cream and started eating on the cone. "If you say that you're a year older than… Luzon, what are your biological ages?"

"Oh." Philia shifted herself. "I'm 17, my kuya's 16."

Hong Kong finished off his cone and smiled. "I'm 17 myself. Lin Yi's 18 and Kim's 19."

"Ah! Very interesting!" Suddenly, Philia clapped her hands and shifted closer to Hong Kong. "I have an idea!"

Hong Kong looked a little surprised from Philia's sudden outburst. "What, what is it?"

"I could teach you Filipino, while you can teach me Chinese! Or whatever dominant language you have in Hong Kong…"

"It's Cantonese," Hong Kong said patiently. "I'm actually Chinese-illiterate nor am I even fluent in speaking it."

"How come you're Chinese-illiterate or else don't speak it? I figured that since you're the embodiment of Hong Kong, you'd speak Chinese."

Hong Kong let out a shaky sigh. "I'd… I'd rather not talk about it, it's…" He turned his head to his hands. "It's too awful."

"Oh…" Philia was somewhat saddened by Hong Kong's change of mood, but then perked up cheerily and said. "Okay, how about a compromise?"

Hong Kong looked up again with a smirk on his face. "You're gonna teach me Filipino while I teach you some Cantonese, yeah?"

"Haha! That's the plan!"

"I like that." Hong Kong then sighed and spread out his arms and legs as he laid down on the grass, looking at the leaves that are dancing with the gentle breeze as the clouds went by, with the sun peeking out on occasion. "You know, hanging out with you is a lot like hanging out with my sisters or Ice."

Philia shifted towards the Hongkonger. "Really? Usually, I'd just hang with kuya on the beach or with Alfred in the park."

Hong Kong turned his head towards Philia. "I'd just like going to the docks back in Hong Kong just to watch the ocean. Most of the time, I do it alone, other times, with Ice."

"What do you guys do when you go there?"

The Cantonese boy breathed in and out once. "We'd just watch the sunset. They're prettier than the ones on the cliffs back in mainland China. And on New Year's and my birthday, Ice comes over for a sleepover and we get up early to watch the sunrise."

"That's so neat! I pretty much don't watch sunsets and sunrises, unfortunately."

"You should. The colors reflecting on the water are really pretty." Hong Kong then pressed his lips together in thought. "Say, how do you say sunrise in Filipino?"

Philia blinked in confusion.

Hong Kong then shifted to lay on his side, his head resting on his hand. "I don't want you translating it to Tagalog, just Filipino."

"Oh! Um, you say pagsikat. For sunset, it's paglubog ng araw. Though for simplicity's sake it's takipsilim. How do you say them in… Cantonese?

"It's yat cheut for sunrise. For sunset, it's yat mou."

"Wow, that's awesome!" exclaimed Philia. "In Spanish it's puesta, or puesta del sol and salida."

"I thought you said you're fluent in Filipino?"

"Spanish my second language, and English is third."

"Oh yeah, I remember reading that in the Philippines travel brochure."

"Travel brochure?"

Suddenly, the scar on Hong Kong's chest tingled at the notion of it. Dull flashbacks of the incident flashed in his head, but he shook it off, getting back to the subject, "Nothing, never mind. Let's like, continue on."

Initially, their conversation subjects shifted back and forth learning each other's individual languages and general things. It came to a surprise for both of them that they did have a few things in common, such as being ruled over in a tyranny state, though who ruled them over differed greatly. In Hong Kong's case, he was forcefully taken away from China by England after the Opium Wars, though he was really subtle about it, even leaving out the parts where he endured verbal abuse from England. Often times whenever he or Philia pronounced some of their words wrong, they would laugh at each other.

Their giggles of their mispronounciation then drifted to Touhou Project somehow. Philia was at first, confused on what it is, and Hong Kong explained that Touhou Project is a doujin game shooter series for Windows. Originally, he explained, the first five games were for the PC-98 before the 6th was released for Windows and the most recent released is Hopeless Masquerade.

"And Touhou itself got so massively popular its fanbase evolved into a community and anybody would make some fanmusic, fancomics, hell, even make games of it," Hong Kong was saying.

"Man, that's really cool!" said Philia with wonder and surprise in her eyes. "I'll totally get kuya interested in those since he's a gaming otaku. And you said there's fanmusic?"

"Remixes of a variety of theme and stage songs," said Hong Kong. "My most favorite circles are IOSYS, 5150, Pizuya's Cell, SOUNDHOLIC, Amateras Records, EastNewSound, Draw the Emotional, Jerico's Law and UNDEAD CORPORATION."

"You listen to a whole lot of those kinds of music, don't you," Philia smirked amusingly.

Hong Kong put his fist to his heart and winked, though his scar tingled again. "Certified Touhou nerd."

Suddenly, Hong Kong's phone vibrated in his back pocket, which startled Philia. Hong Kong shot her an apologetic look and took out his Blackberry. He woke it up and he giggled when it was a text message from Iceland saying, "hey, stupid, u'v bn out 4 1 hr. i'm gona eat the chinese food w/o u if u dont hurry up."

"What?" Philia asked curiously when she peered over the phone screen. "What's so funny."

"Oh, it's from Ice. I really need to get going." Hong Kong stood up and stretched his arms. "It was awesome hanging out with you."

"Yeah, I think it is too," said Philia with a smile. "Oh! I almost forgot! Does your have a camera app?"

Hong Kong blinked only once. "Yeah, why?"

"Here." She stood up. "Let's take a selfie together! Whenever you're in Philippines, always smile and take a selfie!"

Hong Kong flashed a grin. "Okay, then, let's do it!"

"Yeah!"

Hong Kong opened the camera app on his Blackberry and switched the camera view so that he and Philia can face the screen. He held out his phone in front of him as Philia rested her cheek on his shoulder, smiling brightly and and holding out a peace sign. Hong Kong touched the snapshot button once and looked at the picture as Philia got off him. "Looks really nice. Ice is so going London Blitz over this."

Philia laughed. "Yeah, even though I don't like, know him all that well."

Hong Kong smirked. "Well, the one thing about Ice is that he's so freaking tsundere and a hipster. In fact, he can act hipster without even trying. He can also act jealous sometimes."

"Oh." Philia laughed at that. "So I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

_Tomorrow?_ Hong Kong thought in confusion. _didn't say anything about meeting her tomorrow…_ "Yep, we will see each other, so goodbye."

"See you!" Philia stood there for half a minute while she sees Hong Kong walk off. "Hey!"

Hong Kong stopped in his tracks and turned halfway. "Yeah?"

"How do you say goodbye in Cantonese?"

Hong Kong simply smiled. "It's zoi gin. How do you say goodbye in Filipino?"

Philia felt her cheeks redden. Hong Kong's smile was the most beautiful, hottest thing she saw on the face of the planet. "Oh, it's… it's paalam na."

Hong Kong nodded. "Paalam na, until then." And he walked off towards the direction he and Philia went, his figure then nothing but a speck in the distance.

All could Philia do, though, was just stare at him walk away. Yesterday, she thought that Hong Kong was cute and hot when she first met him at the park but goddamn does he look gorgeous. It was beautiful the way he looked at her, with a friendly and kind face. His light skin, his dark brown hair styled like a typical teen boy's, his eyes a tarnished gold, and his hot British accent***-

Wait, what the hell was she thinking? England has that natural accent back when he took over her and Luzon's capital back in 1762 and it was tyrannical the first time she heard. But then again… Hong Kong's British accent was… kinder, friendlier, more gentle and outgoing, so this is different.

Philia then suddenly remembered a leaked photo of Hong Kong back in the beginning of September 2010, a few weeks after the Manila tour bus hostage crisis. Honestly, he looked hot with that emotionless expression. Now, she saw him in person, with a confused and surprised look on his face, but with soft tarnished gold eyes and mouth open slightly, but that just made him cuter and hotter. She had been wanting to meet Hong Kong for some time, but unfortunately, two years ago in March, she was too late as he had to depart from Manila back to China. She had been _longing_ to meet him personally since.

Just then, the Filipina realized that she was staring off into space. "Agh! Freaking hell, Rizal's gonna be pissed at me if I'm gone for too long!" With those words, Philia dashed off out of the park and was racing straight back to the hotel where she and Luzon were staying.


	4. Chapter 4: Attraction? -part 2-

And another new chapter is up! Now we get to see Hong Kong's side of the story!

* * *

><p>-Chapter 4 ~ Attraction...? (part 2)-<p>

Despite the sky being somewhat overcast, it is quite bright and hazy today. The sun would sometimes hide behind the clouds, only peeking out when the clouds move in between. Hong Kong was walking back to the hotel he and Iceland are staying at, his clasped hands resting on his buttocks, bouncing lightly every time he took a step, whistling through "Beloved Tomboyish Daughter" from Touhou 6: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Though it's not one of his favorites, he thinks it's fitting for lucky days such as this one. Lucky enough that he was able to meet Philia again after yesterday, and lucky enough that he didn't suffer another heart attack or cardiac arrest or else vomited.

Hong Kong stopped whistling and stopped in his tracks as his eyes widened a little in realization. He didn't suffer any heart attacks or cardiac arrests. Nor did he even vomit today. That's actually the first time in a few days that this did not happen. What are the reasons why?

Though, beyond this point, Hong Kong didn't really care why. He didn't get any heart attacks and cardiac arrests nor did he even vomit and that's what matters. He continued whistling and his normal pace back to his and Iceland's hotel room, though his lips hurt and his lungs were nearly out of air by the time he reached the elevator to to the third floor.

Hong Kong opened his room door and called out, "I'm back."

Iceland was eating some sweet-n-sour pork he heated up and looked up with impatient eyes when his Cantonese best friend entered the room. "You are, finally."

Hong Kong scoffed as he closed the door behind him. "What's with the look? It's not like I was gone that long."

"Yes it is," Iceland retorted as he frowned. "It's 12:30, according to the kitchen clock."

Hong Kong shrugged. "It's not like, actually very long."

The albino teenager's face twisted slightly in fury. "Yes it is! You left at 11 in the morning, you came back one and a half hours late!"

Hong Kong frowned as well and crossed his arms. "That's because the distance between the hotel and the park was thirty minutes apart."

_Okay, either he's telling the truth or he's a complete idiot,_ thought Iceland begrudgingly.

"So," Hong Kong spoke up. "Is there any Chinese take out left?"

"Just shrimp stirfry, sweet-n-sour pork and dim sum," Iceland replied, though his words sounded like he was mumbling.

Luckily, Hong Kong understood what his best friend said. "Thanks for keeping the dim sum for me, Ice."

"You're welcome. I would have ordered a lot, but I didn't have much money on me, since dim sum is one of your favorites."

Hong Kong nodded in understanding and walked up to the microwave and opened the door to reveal two plates, one on top of the other with their rims touching each other, revealing some of the pork and rice. He silently thanked Iceland for keeping the pork and rice themselves warm while waiting. He carefully pulled the plates out and set them on the counter. The plates felt lukewarm, but as Hong Kong removed the first plate, there was only a little steam rising from the sweet-n-sour pork and rice.

Hong Kong then grabbed a fork, took the plate to the table and sat at it, gently stabbing the pork piece with his fork and ate it.

"So," Iceland began. "What did you and… um… Philia do this late morning?"

The Cantonese teen swallowed his piece. "Charice? Well, she accepted my apology for knocking her down to the ground yesterday."

Iceland raised a brow in suspicion. "And?"

"And we got ice cream-well, sherbet and ice cream-we sat under the tree and talked, and it turns out that she has a younger brother that represents the Inner Philippine Islands, if not Manila."

"I knew it…" Iceland took another bite of his pork. "What else did you two talk about?"

"Just some general stuff." Hong Kong ate some rice. "Charice also asked me about you, though."

Iceland's stretched his face in confusion, though he was blushing slightly. "A… about… me?"

Hong Kong smirked. "Yeah, I pretty much remarked on how tsundere and hipster you can totally be without even trying."

"What do you mean by 'tsundere?'"

"I could set up a date with you and Lin Yi if you'd like, Ice."

Iceland's faced instantly turned red, but his face contorted with a furious expression. "LIN YI AND I ARE NOT A THING!" He really hates it when Hong Kong fixes him up with his sister. Apparently, Hong Kong is the only one who knows that Iceland has a huge crush on Taiwan but doesn't really want to reveal it.

"And then our general conversation switched to learning each others' languages."

Iceland's face and expression turned back to a normal color and relaxed state. "You guys were teaching each other Filipino and Cantonese?"

Hong Kong ate more of his rice and pork. "Yep. And apparently, she speaks Spanish as well. Her brother is also fluent in Tagalog."

"Don't you mean tagalong?"

"No, Tagalog, it's a dialect spoken in the Manila area. Kinda weird that two siblings speak different dialects."

"But Mr. America and Mr. Canada speak different dialects even though they speak the same language," Iceland pointed out. "And so does England as the rest of his United Kingdom siblings. Well, except for Ireland, maybe. And there's Mr. Germany and Mr. Prussia* and the Italy brothers*. They all speak different dialects though their individual languages remain the same."

"I know that, it's just weird."

Hong Kong ate more of his rice when Iceland asked again. "There's a chance you'll be meeting Phil- Charice tomorrow, yes?"

"Yeah, she did," replied Hong Kong without thinking. _Wait, did we agree on that, really? Well, I did say yes, so…_

"Well, when the time comes," Iceland continued. "I wanna come along, since I really want to get to know Charice better."

Hong Kong gave Iceland a deadpan look. "You're just coming along so that you would berate me for 'flirting with the girls I meet.'*"

"You better not be, or else I'm cutting you off of my Tumblr**." It really annoyed Iceland whenever Hong Kong would seemingly flirt with a few girls at internet cafes or malls or any other public place. Hong Kong claims that he likes chatting with girls and tell Iceland that he was acting like an insecure child (subtly adding in that Iceland's just jealous that he cannot talk to girls properly, even though Hong Kong says it's just a joke to tease him).

Hong Kong gave out a smirking, snide expression. "You're bluffing."

Iceland's berry eyes tensed up briefly, but let out a low growl and continued eating his sweet-n-sour pork. Hong Kong just merely shrugged and continued eating as well. As he was, his thoughts went straight back to the first time he spent the late afternoon with Philia in the park. He recalled that he had no heart attacks nor did he even vomit. At any random moment, including thinking about the incident, he suffers a heart attack or cardiac arrest and has to be revived. For every heart attack or cardiac arrest, he would become increasingly depressed; some points in time that his stomach couldn't contain anything he eats, making him vomit. Hong Kong could recall that while he was in a coma, Iceland was going through the same depression; he couldn't eat nor he could even sleep.

But that was two years ago since Hong Kong awoke from his coma, and now _he_ has to suffer from it. Until he dies at the end of August. Not even Iceland nor China-the only two people whom Hong Kong loves dearly-would even get him out of his depression. And yet… and yet Philia just became the one who made Hong Kong almost forget about his heart troubles and depression. He keeps brushing it off as being similar to back when he was in the Philippines while going through rehabilitation and met a lot of people that treated him like a family member, so maybe it's just that. But then Hong Kong remembered those times when he accidentally brushed against Philia's arms (or was it the other way around?) he felt tingling surges through his body. It made his insides warm, made him feel lifted up, feel a lot better than he was in his mental state. But that was back when he was in the Philippines. Or was it?

Hong Kong finished off his meal quickly so that Iceland wouldn't notice him spacing out for a minute.

"Li, are you okay?" Iceland asked.

No such luck. "I'm all right, Ice, I was just thinking about something."

"About… Charice?"

Hong Kong felt tingling shivers go up through his skin and up to his head, though at the same time, he felt angry and snarky. _Hey, since when_ he _gets to do the teasing?_ He then made eye contact with Iceland, "No, I was thinking about where Charice and I… and you, of course, would meet next tomorrow."

Iceland finished up his sweet-n-sour pork meal and answered. "Well, Li, knowing you, you would have gone to a shopping district with her to go clothes-shopping."

"And what's wrong with clothes shopping?"

Iceland scoffed. "You tell me. The last few times I've been to your house and your room, no doubt, your closet is nearer and nearer to bursting."

"Look, Mom, everything in my closet is organized in its own special way," Hong Kong waved a hand. "It's actually nowhere near bursting."

"Oh really, what about your traditional Chinese clothes, then?"

"They're in my other closet along with my old sketches,*** you know that. Besides they're only for special occasions like Chinese New Year. Heck, twice I let you borrow one of my duanguas."

Iceland frowned and pressed lips together in which Hong Kong easily recognized as his pout. When it came to heated debates like this and whenever they reach a stalemate, Iceland would always make that face. Hong Kong always says that his silly little pout made him adorable, but now he resisted saying it.

Hong Kong got up from his chair and took out his Blackberry phone. "That reminds me I better send a text to Charice about where we'll be meeting tomorrow and at what time."

"Do you even have Charice's cell phone number, Li?"

The Cantonese city-state shrugged. "Well, she sent me a text last night. Apparently, Alfred like, gave her my cell number. I have hers in my phonebook."

Hong Kong opened up his phonebook app and scrolled down to "Charice Pacquiao," touched it, and typed out his text message asking Philia where and when to meet and sent it to her cell phone number.

He then put his phone on the table and pushed it towards his albino bestie. "Here."

"Thank you," replied Iceland as he took out his phone and typed in Philia's cell number. "You know, I honestly can't believe that Mr. America of all people would even have your cell number and give it to Charice."

"Well, Alfred was a pretty friendly guy when I first met him," Hong Kong confessed. "Only his eyes we're friends." He then leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. "But I really doubt he and I will be reach up into the level as we are now. Hell, even he and Arthur are inching towards the lovers area."

Iceland shot Hong Kong a warning glare, but he didn't lift up his face from the phone screen. "We are _not_ reaching up to that level."

Hong Kong slided back, but rested his hands on the table, smirking. "Yeah, of course not."

Iceland let out a low growl as he gathered up the dishes and put them in the kitchen sink. "Hey, Li, would you mind helping?"

"Sure," Hong Kong replied as he walked over to the sink to help out.

With their leftovers done, it's time for the two best friends to get some R-n-R. With R-n-R comes gaming tournaments sitting on Hong Kong's bed with their laptops and with laptops and gaming tournaments comes Touhou Project, respectively. And with Touhou Project comes Touhou 13.5: Hopeless Masquerade. Out of the two, Iceland seems to be a bit better at danmaku fighting games than Hong Kong. But needless to say, they do enjoy competing against each other to get the most wins, like best friends typically do. On rare occasions, both Hong Kong and Iceland would put down bets on the first person who gets a specified amount of wins, well, wins the "bet." If either person fails to do so, they lose the "bet" and gets to wear something embarrassing for the rest of the day. This time, it's not one of those rare occasions.

Hong Kong was playing as Koishi Komeiji (much to Iceland's surprise, since Hong Kong always picked out Reimu Hakurei for their particular Touhou tournaments) and Iceland was Mononobe no Futo (He would have chosen Seiga Kaku, but her gameplay mechanics are too erratic for him to handle; besides, Seiga's spell cards didn't look all that interesting.) since her gameplay mechanics were straightforward and easy to catch on. As Futo, Iceland was able to block and dodge Hong Kong's (as Koishi) spell card attacks, though he does get hit when he lets his guard down.

On Hong Kong's part, though he's not at the same rank as Iceland, he seems to be pwning Iceland's cards with ease. Her spell cards (and her mythos even before her first appearance in Subterranean Animism) aren't really too shabby for something that manipulates the subconscious. Though in hindsight, Hong Kong doesn't really know himself what drove him to pick Koishi over Reimu. At first, he silently joked that "Koishi 'made him'" do this action; though then again, his thoughts went back to the dream he had with Koishi a couple of days before. Was it because of Koishi's ability to manipulate the subconscious, that Hong Kong was depressed without even knowing it in the first place?

He merely brushed it off as ridiculous, as he already knows that he's subconsciously depressed. Then again, the seemingly grim words the little satori girl had said-_"Follow your heart. Don't listen to what other people say. If you do, you will die."_-the grim Japanese writing and English translation-"Find the one you love" (it's not exactly grim, but you know)-probably made the Cantonese boy feel this way. Whether he is or is not, he does not know.

Suddenly, his mind wandered back to when France and Japan were talking about the so-called "Red Thread of Fate" (though only on Japan's part) and how France was talking about him "fated" to be with someone forever. The first part of him thought it was completely ludicrous, not to mention "fate" is nothing but a mere cliche; the other half… what if it was true for him and Philia? Granted, Hong Kong's not the type to jump to conclusions, but the brief, slight feel of Philia felt like a shivering jolt up his body; it was unlike any other light touch such as the hugs he had received from the Filipino people before his departure to China. Her voice was like America's: sunny and happy and optimistic. The only difference is, though, her voice reminded him of a few Touhou vocalists who had beautiful singing voices.

Hong Kong's mind snapped back into reality as he let out a cry of surprise when Koishi's health bar went to zero, just after Futo dealt a blow on her. _Shit…!_ he thought. _I must've gotten distracted._

"Yea-ahh~ 6 in a row with Futo-chan! Whoo!" Iceland cheered as he fist-pumped in the air. But then he noticed his best friend with an unusual expression. "Uh, Li?"

Hong Kong quickly blinked only once and turned his head in hearing of his human nickname. "What?"

"Are you okay? You were spacing out towards the end of the round."

Already Hong Kong could feel his face heat up in embarrassment. So Iceland really did notice. His thoughts were so caught up in what from his strange dream to Japan and France's saying of it to his experience of being with Philia that he did not realize he was actually spacing out, thus making him lose to Iceland. "I-I'm fine, Ice, you kinda had an advantage over me at the end."

Iceland blinked in surprise, much to Hong Kong's relief. "Really? I figured we'd be in a stalemate since I was using Mononobe no Futo. Either that, or I was probably worried that I would lose."

"Hmm."

"What do you mean, 'hmm?'"

"Uh, nothing. It's nothing."

Iceland asked no further about that, but then said, "Wanna do the next round?"

Hong Kong exited out of Hopeless Masquerade and let out a yawn. "No, I'm done playing Touhou for the day."

That caught Iceland off-guard. "Seriously, done for the day? Usually, we'd be playing up until our eyes burn off the plasma screen!"

Hong Kong put his laptop to sleep and closed it, not even bothering to make a retort. He put the device under his bed when a thought came to him. When will America be holding the next meeting? Because knowing him, he would hold two parts of a meeting in case there were any arguments and if a consensus isn't reached. The first part was yesterday, as France and England were previously feuding over something (though he has a feeling that it's him, even though England talking about him is really disturbing to him); he probably doesn't know when the next part will be. So the best thing to do now is text America asking him about the second part of the meeting.

Suddenly, Hong Kong's Blackberry rung (_Speak of the devil,_ he thought), so he got his phone out of his pocket once again, unlocked it and it seems that he received two text messages from two different people. Suspicious, Hong Kong touched the first one, which happened to be from America.

Iceland hovered over out of curiosity. "What is it?"

"It's a text message from Alfred," Hong Kong observed. "It says that the second part of the meeting is still being… planned out, and it won't be until either tomorrow or the day after or else the day after."

"Gaming tournaments during that time," Iceland muttered.

"What's that?"

"Nothing."

Hong Kong shrugged. "Oh well. What does the second message say?"

"Wait, there's a second message?"

Hong Kong deleted the first message and opened up the second one. "Ohh why am I not surprised?"

Iceland peered at the bright screen of his best friend's phone. "It's from Charice…!"

"Yep, and look what it says."

Iceland put his hands on Hong Kong's upper arm and shoulder to get a closer look at the phone screen. The text message from Philia read "I know a shopping district just west of the hotel we're all staying at! Meet me there at 11:30 sharp! Don't be late! 3"

It was when Iceland furrowed his brow. "What's the the heart emoticon at the end?"

"Yeah, I noticed it too," Hong Kong observed. "Usually girls do this to their boyfriends or their other girl friends."

"But you and Charice just met. Plus you do it to me sometimes."

Hong Kong sighed and proceeded to text back, "sure thng. is ur bro comin?"

Iceland furrowed his brow once again. "What you mean bro? Does Charice even have a brother?"

Hong Kong simply moved his eyes towards Iceland, not moving his head away from the phone screen. "Yeah, I already told you that."

Iceland's berry eyes flickered only once then smiled in embarrassment. "Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot."

Hong Kong's phone vibrated again as Philia sent him another text. "No, he doesn't like shopping in large crowds."

He then raised a brow and texted back, "orly?"

"Bit like Romano, don't you think?" asked Iceland.

"I like, pretty much doubt that, Ice," replied Hong Kong with an as-matter-of-factly tone.

The Blackberry vibrated again. "Yep. So you coming?"

Hong Kong texted back, keeping his promise to bring Iceland along, "yep. ice is comin, 2. that alright?"

Not two seconds have passed when the Cantonese city-state felt his phone vibrate once again. "lol It's okay, I don't mind. :3"

Hong Kong faced Iceland. "She said yes."

Iceland smiled and put his hands off of Hong Kong's arm. "Sweet."

Hong Kong then put his phone to sleep and put it on his nightstand (with Iceland getting out of the way) and stretched his arms as he got off his bed, his wool socks touching the desaturated beige plush carpeted floor. He let out a big, contented sigh as he threw his arms down. He looked at the time. "It's nearly twenty after five."

"I got some instant ramen noodles while you were out," said Iceland.

The dark-haired boy bit his lip in thought, then smiled. "I think that's a great idea."


End file.
